Frozen Heart
by iamthemap
Summary: Here is a land cursed with bitter cold and numbing frost, where warmth can only be in fire yet can easily depart. When a weary traveler stumbles into this kingdom after being lost, will he be the one to break the curse and thaw the frozen heart? [Frozen AU] IchiHitsu


_A/N: Apologies for the title if you think it was too cheesy but the song was just too perfect for Toshiro. And for not updating basically any of my stories in here._

 _Frozen AU that just kept on bugging me for ages until I finally wrote the first chapter down, because basically I just saw Toshiro in Elsa, I have no idea why, though._

 _Rated T because it may get naughty in the future, so just to be sure._

 _Anyways, try to enjoy!_

 _Pairing: Ichigo Kurosaki / Toshiro Hitsugaya_

* * *

 ** _Prelude_**

A huge, circular rock stood in between two trees which branches overlapped each other, with three other distinctive stones neatly wedged into the ground around it. All of them had a blanket of green moss sheeting their surface and small insects hovered and resting here and there. The trees were an unreachable height with their branches and leaves covering the summer sky and shading the ground in the woods like a well-made roof, untouched by the hands of man or other beings, grown to their utmost potential throughout the years of immaculate life and keeping the area cool and damp. The path was not muddy yet not that dry as well; the soil was clearly stepped on and used frequently. No grass grew on the long trail of flat and stony soil, no signs of any wildlife housing in the middle of it and there were footprints.

The presence of footprints was always good for first time travellers; it meant they were not the only person alone in the deep forest.

Yet for this young traveller, it was not.

He had sworn for the fifth time that those mossy rocks, the trees beside them, the cobweb covering a noxious-looking plant and the path all looked _too familiar._ It also didn't help that the footprints in front of him _coincidentally_ matched his own. He frowned for the umpteenth time in the day and quite enough for him to consider it a habit, and growled as he kicked a small stone, sending it flying and rolling over a large tree root. Who was this unlucky traveller?

It was Ichigo Kurosaki, a twenty-three year old, orange-haired young man packed with a map, a large sword, a small bag of goods to keep him up during the journey and lots and lots of resentment, despair and impatience. The reason of his bleak situation was the quite alarming state of his home town where his father, being a well-known doctor there, needed specific herbs to calm down a sudden outbreak of a disease. The said herbs were found in a western kingdom of Rukongai and nowhere else to everyone's dismay, and to be multiplied twice for poor Ichigo, had to be on the other side of the damn land. His current goal was to arrive in the kingdom of Junrinan, collect these medicinal plants and, hopefully, return to Karakura before the season ended. But with his current situation, the swordsman was more concerned of getting out of the forest alive before he starved or started chopping down trees to clear the pathway for him (in which his Zangetsu is large and capable enough of doing).

Grunting again, he cussed to himself and to the high heavens with the hopes of his silent curses not being blocked by the damn thick branches of the trees and reached the beings above. His sword was feeling a lot heavier than before and ignoring his stomach was becoming too troublesome and dangerous for his small pack of bread in his bag. Curse this forest. Curse this pathway. Curse this trip. Curse this summer day. Curse the smartass fucker who told him he would get across and out of the damn woods in less than half a day. Curse himself for believing the smartass fucker. Curse this day. Curse this fucking frog croaking like no fucking care in the word.

Just. Curse everything.

He rubbed his temple with this thumb, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths, because developing hypertension at such a young age while being lost in a huge forest was not a good thing. Okay, he needed a new plan. It was already approaching noon which meant he had been in the forest for more than five hours and he was sure he had not covered more than half of the woods yet. That meant he could still follow some other path and perhaps get to a new place that probably had signs that said _"you're almost there"_ or _"just a few more steps and you're out"_ and be extremely convenient.

Filled with a new set of determination, he broke off the used path and hopped over a root that was too large to stay underground and went off with his own instincts and sense of direction. The sword was adjusted so the strap was resting on the left shoulder, easing the other from the heavy weight it was supporting for hours already. He wouldn't be surprised if he was going to have a major backache once he sets everything down.

He continued to trudge over the grassy, rocky, root-filled path for a good twenty minutes until he saw an end to the once endless line of trees and the summer sun shone bright there. His heart lifted up as if his soul was heading toward heaven and he sped up his pace before he realized he wasn't out of the forest yet, but it was better than nothing.

A small lake surrounded by a cleared, grassy field greeted him in delight with its water sparkling beautifully and invitingly. At least the thing about the crystal clear lake was true in which Ichigo was going to happily take advantage of. He was sweaty, tired and felt the heavy knots in his muscles come to life when he set down the sword and other items by a rock that was conveniently right beside the waters.

He looked around for a moment before kneeling by the edge and splashing his face with the heavenly clear liquid, thankful and adored the refreshing feeling. He dashed another good amount over his head that his hair was soaked, stuck to his skin and made the wind that breezed through feel even cooler. The bread and water was next, and he chomped down his snack and leant on the smooth part of the rock to rest and look at the sky.

To be honest, the journey wasn't that bad as it could be. He met a few people, travelled new places and saw the things he only got to know in the books back home. It would have been nicer if he didn't have some sort of mission to accomplish as he coursed through the land; but he really couldn't change the fact that he couldn't. With two younger sisters back at home and a loud father who was awfully busy with running the local clinic as the only doctor in town, Ichigo did not have the choice of giving up the responsibility.

||Though he was trained a swordsman, not a doctor, the former was not really his choice. It was sort of a family reputation to keep; his father was a former general in the town and retired to pursue the medical field but his glory did not shine down and went to his well-built son, who lived up quite outstandingly as his father's heir. In fact his current training did not require him to travel the land in search for herbs, yet as a son he needed to be. This was sort of a blessing and a curse; a journey to new places but with the large danger of getting lost, in which he wasn't fond of being.

Somehow during his quiet musing while gazing the summer sky, he had fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew, his eyes were closed and he felt well-rested. But somehow, instead of the bright light muted by his eyelids, it was a little darker. He reflexively frowned at it, cracking one eye slightly open to see a navy blue cloak, and a lighter blue jacket inside of it and was very positive that it was not the summer sky he was looking at. Both eyes slowly disclosed and looked up to see who the perpetrator of the sudden shade was and he froze at what he saw.

It was like somewhere in his slumber he had died, probably from poison in the bread he ate, or some wild bear or wolf (do they even have those here?) came up and ate him or some bum stabbed him in his sleep. Because he was positively sure that the face of the stranger standing in front and over him was not of any kind of mortal. It was of a deity; a beauty unblemished and untouched like the branches of the trees in the forest, purest and fairest of everyone he saw in his whole life (aside from his mother and sisters). The deep turquoise eyes were hard to look away from, the snowy white strands of hair fell _perfectly_ just above his eyes and his skin was too milky, too white to be considered as human.

God, it was enough to make him poetic at this point.

Ichigo must have looked like a dumbfounded idiot, didn't he; because the stranger stepped back, muttered, almost stuttered something inaudible though it was surely an apology while the swordsman tried to restart his brain, groggy and foggy from sleep, and being woken up by some kind of beautiful forest nymph did not help regain his proper thinking. And the next thing he knew, the petite (okay he was sure to be some kind fairy) man had walked briskly away from him and he pushed himself up, tumbling at first, and followed, heart pounding at the realization.

This was _another person_ in the _same fucking forest_.

"Wait!" he called out, running after him, "Hey, wait! Just for a second there!" Oh shit, the white-haired boy was headed into the woods, which was not good since Ichigo was not exactly a great navigator and the sword and other items were just lying on the rock. He growled to himself and picked up his speed. The other wasn't looking at him so it didn't take long to catch up on the rather agile boy. Ichigo was able to corner him when he reached a large root that was quite a jump up for someone with his height.

The cool eyes slanted inwardly as the boy scowled and watched Ichigo leap in front of him. One step back, and he positioned himself as if ready to attack even if Ichigo was clearly unarmed. Apprehension filled his face as he glared intensely at the taller man, his cloak covering most of his body except his hands that were surprisingly gloved. Not those fingerless gloves people wore in this weather, but grey gloves that covered the whole hand and wrist.

Why the hell was he wearing those kinds of clothes in _fucking_ summer?

Thankfully his musings only lasted for a few seconds before the boy spoke up, "What do you want?" It was hard, demanding, but Ichigo could hear a bit of dread in his voice.

"Ah." Ichigo started, lifting a hand up to rub the back of his neck and his eyes looked around the place as he tried to relax and be a bit comfortable. The tension was weighing quite badly on him and obviously on the other, "Look, don't act like I'm some kind of hunter or something. I'm just a traveller who got…" His free hand gestured as he looked back at the boy, "…Really fucking lost. So you seem pretty keen on your way around here so may—,"

"Where are you heading to?"

Apparently, this beautiful fucker was not patient.

The taller fought the urge to scowl and snap at him but folded his arms instead, "The kingdom of Junrinan." His head jerked to the side which probably meant 'up' as a point in his next words, "Got told it's up in the mountains and just past this forest."

With that, the other scowled even more but looked away, a gloved hand sneaking out of the cloak and clutching the sleeve of his other arm, "You're wasting your time. You wouldn't want to go there." He then turned around and started walking.

 _What the fuck._

Ichigo growled and pounced off of his place to stop him again, this time, reaching to grab his shoulder only to have the other stop, step back and shoved him away, "Don't touch me." The words were said in a venomous tone yet, even with his face scrunched up aggressively, he still looked quite enchanting. However, Ichigo easily let that thought slip to counter his words with a growl of his own.

"All I'm asking for is directions to get the hell out of here and reach the damn kingdom. I don't give a shit if it's a place that I want to go to or not, but I _have_ to." Three deep breaths and he stepped back and crossed his arms once more, "I'm not going to bother with you anymore as long as you get me out of here."

The smaller seemed to have realized that contending with their tempers was not going to do anything good at this point and he himself took few moments to inhale and exhale as well, still avoiding eye contact before speaking up, "From where you stayed at the rock, you go across the lake and head straight into it. You'll see a sign post pointing to Junrinan and follow the trail straight from there." And then he took a step aside when he felt the air of acknowledgement and acceptance around the taller man, who only stood and frowned, however satisfied with his answer. When Ichigo opened his mouth to say his thanks, the white-haired man stopped in his walk and turned his head to the side and looked at him at the corner of his eye, "That land is cursed. And you'll soon see how."

Ichigo's eyebrows furrowed but before he could ask anymore, the boy had headed off into another direction. He tried to follow but when he peeked behind the large tree in which he ran towards to, there was no sign of the other. The swordsman felt somewhat outfoxed, though it was not hard to brush it off and walk back to his place beside the lake. The time it took for him to start walking until he arrived at the rock was spent by muttering how crass the guy was despite his appearance, and who the hell wore gloves in the middle of summer. At least he got the directions, and thank goodness there were actually signs in this damn large forest.

His steps were trudges as he packed his stuff back on and followed what the boy said, easily finding the said sign that was already incredibly rundown and the name would have been unreadable if the paint wasn't red with all decaying that has affected the wood. He continued his journey, all determined and confident to get out of there when, after maybe half an hour of walking, he knew something was wrong.

The air was chilly, no, not the cool breeze kind of chilly, but it was _very_ chilly. Ichigo knew that Junrinan was in the mountains and that he was actually trekking uphill already, yet he never read or heard about it being a cold place all year round. Yeah, they were in the highlands but that didn't mean the temperature would drop immediately, right? He shivered a bit and was pretty thankful he brought a jacket; he put it on before he proceeded though it seemed like it was not going to be enough to keep him warm.

The more he walked towards his destination, the colder the air grew and soon, the path he walked on was covered in a white blanket of snow. Ichigo was now extremely confused, yet went on his way with the same conviction of arriving in the kingdom before it became dark. But when he was surely outside of the forest and into a clear land with the sign post pointing ahead saying "Kingdom of Junrinan", he stopped, because even if it was the summer sky and air just half an hour ago, it was undeniably winter in this place.

At least, he understood what the little deity of a boy said.

"Holy shit." Ichigo was stuck on the same spot for a good five minutes before operating his limbs again, plodding through the thick floor of snow and again thankful for his boots. A few trees here and there stood around him, but they were all but covered with frost and snow and he wondered why no one had mentioned it before. Did it happen just recently? Or was there some kind of taboo? Though there was no use in wondering now, he was right there already and it was not going to be good if he were to go back: his nap had taken a few good hours and if it weren't for the snowy-haired guy, he would have probably slept until night time.

Soon, he could see a wooden house with its chimney pouring out smoke down the hill and felt the warmth just by looking at it. His legs were already starting to feel numb from the cold and the chill was entering through his thin jacket, making him shiver and grumble under his breath. This trip was beginning to grate on his nerves and possibly his whole being, half of his brain confused while the other kept on carping. He was not going to arrive in town well and alive at this point, so might as well suck it up and try to appeal to some stranger to lend him some winter clothes. For a moment he questioned if the herbs he was actually looking for was available in this weather, but he shook his head, dismissing the thought with the obvious answer of the kingdom having some stores that sell herbs. Just going to keep his hopes up with that.

The trek downhill was steep; having his heavy sword behind him did not help in keeping his balance as he tried to not slip down in the snow. His luck was definitely pushing and pulling on different options and it had decided to run away and let him step on a rock wedged unstably into the ground and fell off, sending Ichigo off balanced and falling all the way down. And as if to mock him of his fall, a small stream was there to catch and literally (okay maybe not _literally_ ) froze him as the ice-cold liquid seeped through his trousers and bit his legs numb.

"Shit. Fuck. That's fucking cold." He hissed, rubbing his rear which had landed hard on a rock. Well, it was definitely going to bruise. A few more moments and a string of curses, he got up as soon as he forced his legs to move and they obeyed, yet his actions were interrupted once more by a burst of laughter.

A young child in a dark blue jacket, matching pants and black boots with bright red hair with an incredibly bratty look on his face (the kind that old women referred as "whippersnapper") was pointing and laughing hysterically at him, tears appearing at the corners of his eyes, "Did ya see that, Ururu? Man that was freaking funny and stupid!"

Ichigo glared and stomped towards him, reaching over his shoulder to the hilt of his sword. Who the hell did this rascal think he was? "Shut the fuck up, you little shit."

The look he got was of a challenge and the kid was not going to back down to it. He smirked and folded his arms, "You're a freaking idiot and looked really stupid falling like some rag doll."

Rag doll? Oh this punk was going to get it; he was already gripping his sword and ready to strike (well not really hit him maybe just intimidate that little bitch). But the kid did not look even a little bit daunted and if it was not for the girl that appeared with a distressed, yet at the same time calm, look on her face.

"Stop pushing away the customers, Jinta." Her small and frail voice matched the meek expression and flush on her face. Her stature was comparably smaller than the brat referred as 'Jinta', and it was pretty obvious that she was the inferior, or at least the Jinta must felt like she was, child between them.

The redhead only sneered at her, "Shut the hell up and don't tell me what to do. And be honest, that idiot looked stupid."

Ichigo would have been thankful to her for defending him if she didn't look at him with a blank look in her eyes and nodded.

"He did. But still. Tessai wouldn't like it if the first thing you do to a customer is insult them."

…They were both fucking brats.

"As if this guy's a fuckin' custo-."

"JINTA HANAKARI…"

All of them stiffened before Ichigo could rebut the two when the loud voice boomed into the air. They were lucky enough they were not beside a highland or, the young traveller was sure of it, an avalanche would happen from the loud echo that was emitted. And apparently Jinta's expression changed from smug to panic and the three looked at the direction where the source of the voice was and saw, literally, a large man trudging towards them.

He looked funny; tall, muscular and tan despite the current weather, cornrowed hair, handlebar moustache and thick-framed rectangular glasses. The jacket he still made his muscles obvious and made Ichigo sweat _not_ to mess with this big guy.

"… DID YOU JUST SAY A BAD WORD?"

Ururu nodded again and Jinta gave her a look that says _"how could you betray me"_ less than a second after she did. The large man took him by the ear and huffed. "You just insulted a potential customer!"

Ichigo watched quietly as the three started bickering when Jinta answered rudely and Ururu backing whoever seemed right. He fixed himself up before frowning and growling again, "Hey!"

The three stopped altogether to look at him before Mr. Moustache suddenly bowed, "Apologies for the rude introduction, sir. My name is Tessai Tsukabishi and this is Jinta Hanakari and Ururu Tsumugiya." He said, gesturing to the boy and girl respectively before standing up straight, "And from what I can see, you are in need of winter clothes! Well, our shop has winter clothes, perhaps you would like to buy?"

Before Ichigo could say anything, Tessai had announced that he would lead the way and started walking, bringing the two kids along. The swordsman shrugged and trudged after them, half eager at the offer of warmer clothing and half hoping he did not have to spend much time with the brats. At least the trip was not too long; a good ten minutes before he saw a small wooden cottage covered in snow and its tiny chimney releasing grey smoke. There was a sign attached crookedly above the door that said _"Urahara Shop"_ , and a smaller sign below it that said _"and Sauna!"_ and was exposed when Tessai slammed the front door open.

Finally, some place comfortable and warm (with a sauna!). And people who can explain what the fuck was happening in this place, no matter how unreliable they looked.

* * *

 _A/N: Couldn't stop myself from the "Urahara Shop" thing. And I'm not sure when I will be updating this, the second chapter is still in progress and wow, college is d-e-m-a-n-d-i-n-g. But I will try to make time and continue writing especially when my muse bothers me later at night._

 _Reviews are incredibly welcomed, follows and favorites are awesome too, thank you very much._


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